Smoothies are beverages made from whole fruits, for which—in contrast to conventional fruit juices—usually the whole fruit is processed, except for the seeds. Thus the basis of a smoothie is the fruit pulp or fruit puree, which is mixed according to the recipe with juices to obtain a smooth and creamy consistency. However, there are also smoothies that additionally contain such ingredients as yogurt, milk, ice cream or other foods.
Kitchen appliances for making smoothies are known. In these prior art kitchen appliances, a cutting and stirring unit with multiple blades, which can be set in rotation by a motor in order to puree and stir the food, is located at the bottom end of a mixing container into which the foods to be mixed are placed from above. Also located at the bottom end of the mixing container is a closable outlet, out of which the finished liquid product that was produced in the mixing container can flow, for example into a tumbler located beneath the outlet. A disadvantage of these prior art devices is that the cutting and stirring unit in the mixing container is difficult to access, which makes it difficult to clean this component.
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved kitchen appliance for processing food and, in particular, for producing blended beverages. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an improved cutting and/or stirring unit for such a kitchen appliance.